Ruby Rose
"Ruby likes Utah, Ruby Likes Utah."
I hated it when people teased me and of course he walked in right then.
"Ruby and Utah up in a tree."
"Girls, be nice."
I looked at him.
"They're saying you like me."
"Of course I like you, you're cute and adorable."
He hugged me and I felt myself go limp and I nuzzled into him.
"No! betrayed by my own cuteness."
I didn't resist the hug, I couldn't resist the hug, and the teasing got worse and my heart went do do do do and stuff and it wasn't fair.
"Yep."
The hug ended too soon and the girls went away.
"Want to fly?"
"Yes!"
I got into his arms and he flew me around Patch.
"Wheee!"
I liked these moments and I pumped my fist in the air as we flew. We landed on a cliff and we looked out into the world.
"Ruby."
"Yes?"
"My people had tales of a tribe with silver eyes, eyes like yours."
I blinked.
"Eyes like your mother."
"Like mom?"
"Yes, I think you might have their powers and I want you to test that out."
I took a deep breath.
"Really?"
"It's worth a shot, I feel. Please think about protecting someone important, really important."
I gritted my teeth and imagined it and winced as a silver glow came out. I froze.
"Wow."
"Not bad for a first-"
I collapsed to my knees but Utah held me up as I collapsed, I just relaxed in his arms as I recovered.
"You're special."
"I don't want to be special, I want to be normal and..."
He patted me on the head, and I couldn't help but smile.
"It's ok to be special."
I felt weak then so I just let him hold me, then I got up.
"So what does this mean?"
"This power, you got it from your mother as it can only be passed from parent to child."
"Right, but where does it comes from?"
"I don't know but it's an important power, a holy one."
I nodded my head.
"Fly you home?"
"Sure."
I got into his arms and we flew home. That moment was nice, it was innocent, I was happy just flying around in a boy's arms. When he landed I looked at him.
"So um... Thanks."
I looked at him.
"I um don't want people to know."
"That's fine."
"Good."
I looked into his eyes and hugged him.
"Thanks."
Girls made fun of me for having a crush on Utah, and I didn't like it at all.
Especially because it was true.
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ChericoWell worn.
Utah
I have an in, now. With Weiss under my influence it wasn't hard to get a deal on some used, about to be discarded, robots. With the new games on the market my income stream grew, especially since I had a deal on merch and other stuff. Then the question became of what to do with this new power and what I needed to do was obvious.
Create a less vulnerable form of communication than the CCTS system.
The world powers of Remnant had, of course, tried to get into space but they failed because dust lost power when you got high enough. So they gave up instead of, you know, using a different source of power...
I'm not kidding about that. They're so obsessed with dust that they ignore other avenues for power. Really it's just so wasteful and short sighted... but I'm a tinkerer and armed with a growing number of robots, scrap, and metal. Really once you get that first repair bot working, it's an assembly line process.
I stared at the rocket.
"Have fun at school, Emerald."
I was 11 years old now, only 1 year until I go to Signal so I might as well do something crazy before I'm shackled to a schedule.
"I will."
"I'm going to be off on business for awhile."
Emerald rolled her eyes.
"I know, I will be fine."
"There are burritos in the refrigerator."
"I know."
Emerald didn't really know or care what the big thing I was building in the square was, as for me I knew this would blow up any semblance of secrecy I had. On the other hand getting ahold of my bunny girl would be easier.
Why yes, I put the bunny girl ahead of Weiss. I mean she's rich and that's nice but Jaune liked her in cannon and since I'm stealing his original much hotter girl I will instead gift him his dream girl. Hopefully he wouldn't screw it all up too badly. I waited as the robots loaded up what I needed and I waited again until I was sure Emerald was gone. I made sure not to eat anything so I should be fine, right? Or not.
I could die... but if I pulled this off I could write my ticket. I put on my new suit and got into the rocket, I strapped myself in and breathed in and out.
"Ok it's just a million lien down the drain, nothing major."
It had been a good year, Shovel knight had been a massive hit. I pressed the button and the gravity dust activated, gently floating me up. At the 3 mile range the dust would stop working, but that was 3 miles of free movement. I felt gravity kick in and pressed the next button, the rockets activated and I felt sick as I was smashed into the seat.
"Come on, don't die."
The ship held and I felt gravity vanish, it was dark now and I could see Remnant in the distance. I undid my seatbelt and floated outwards.
"Ok..."
Three satellites, all of them were intact. Getting the solar panels and batteries to work was a pain in the ass, I carried them to the back of the ship and closed all internal doors. A single hole, a single fuck up and this would kill me. I pressed a button and the external door opened. I pushed each satellite out into geostationary orbit and used manual controls to make sure that the communication would work.
I waited while the door closed, air returned to the craft and I went back inside. I made sure everything was locked down and then put in a message, the vale news network would like this.
"Hello, Lisa."
Lisa Lavender, a woman who was trying to work her way up the corporate ladder, was a driven and capable woman but with expensive tastes. I offered her money in exchange for one day doing a story for me, no questions asked.
"Utah... To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Turn on your scroll."
She sighed and then I heard her breathing get heavier.
"It's beautiful."
"Right now I'm in orbit, taking photos of Remnant. You're a hard worker, I think you deserve this scoop and of course it would count as my favor."
"Of course."
The private investigator 10,000 lien, the money I gave Lisa 100,000 lien, the robots 500,000 lien, the ship 1.5 million lien, the sats 200,000 lien apiece. Being the first man in space, priceless.
I turned on the cameras and saw Lisa's face.
"Hello I am with Mr. Utah Urban who claims to be the first man in space."
I waved my hand.
"It's good to be here Miss Lavender, and there is no one else I'd rather bring this news to then Vale News Network, Vale's most trusted source of news."
It was a local news channel, there were bigger and better ones.
"Can you prove that?"
"Well I'm already beaming down photos of Remnant from space, but my communication satellites should be on right now."
"Communication satellites?"
"No offense, but one should always have back ups. I named these satellites Yang, Ruby and Emerald, they should start beaming down information right about now."
I paused.
"If you don't believe me then please do contact your local government to confirm my words."
I was practically purring.
"Very well, VNN will confirm this news during our commercial break."
She sighed.
"If you're messing with me on this my career is dead, you hear that you little shit?"
"Good thing I'm legit, right?"
She nodded her head nervously and smiled as she received a note.
"You magnificent bastard."
She laughed.
"We go on in five."
I counted down and smiled.
"So we have confirmed that we are talking to the first man in space. Tell me, how did you do it?"
"I'm going to be honest miss, I make video games for a living but I had ulterior motives: I wanted to use that money to elevate our people. I'd like to say I did this on my own but the Schnee dust company was kind enough to sell me their construction robots at a discount."
"And why did they do that?"
I was going to go full out with the bullshit.
"The Schnee dust company, while it does have its faults, does want to further progress. Jacques wanted to do more to help me but the board didn't want to risk company resources on this venture. The discount was all he could do to help me, by the way Jacques Schnee you can now tell them 'I told you so'."
The reporter laughed.
"So your plan?"
"Well the communication satellites are my gift to Remnant and its people and are now open for business, information packs have been sent to the relevant kingdoms. That said after this I plan on returning home to Patch, and becoming a hunter."
"Why?"
"Because Grimm are the enemies of all, Lisa. I want to do my part to destroy them."
She nodded her head.
"So how did you do this? Everyone said it was imposibble,"
"Old Mandalorian saying: 'if some thing doesn't work, do something else'. If dust doesn't work then do something else, so I used a chemical rocket."
"Interesting."
"Well I have to go home soon but before that happens here's one of my people's songs."
"She packed by bag last night, preflight Zero hour, nine a.m. And I'm gonna be high As a kite by then
I miss the Earth so much I miss my wife It's lonely out in space on such a timeless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long, long, time 'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home
Ah, no no no… I'm a rocket man Rocket man Burnin' out his fuse Up here alone."
As I sang Elton John's song I knew I probably gained a horrible nickname from this but... so be it. Bunny girls were on the line here.
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ChericoWell worn.
Utah
7 is a good number. It's lucky, it's prime and a harem composed of 7 women gives you a different girl every day of the week. Large enough for variety but not so large that it's unmanageable. My better pieces, queens, rooks, knights and bishops, are harem material. Pawns? I'll use them for people who have useful connections or which I personally like.
I relaxed in my cell, as the guards paced back and forth.
"Welcome, Ozpin."
"Gentlemen? This seems excessive."
I jingled my cuffs.
"He is after all just a child."
"Quarantine, sir."
"Let me in."
The guards opened my cell and I got up. Ozpin looked at me, his hands on a cane.
"I must say, Utah... When most children perform childish antics they don't go quite as far as you do."
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"I would like to note sir that I didn't break any laws, I checked."
"Well, yes. Then again no one expected an 11 year old to run circles around the 4 kingdoms....you made a lot of people look very foolish."
"Our technology base is overly dependent on dust, because of that we ignore other viable options and we end up wasting a valuable resource on trivial things."
"Our entire civilization is trivial?"
"There are multiple ways to get electrical power, through coal, oil, solar, tidal or wind. Same for heating, same for a lot of things. We have this valuable resource that we depend on and we are wasting it. Thing is, no matter what I said people would ignore me. They would continue to put our collective eggs in that singular basket and doom us all. But if I show people first-hand that you can accomplish things without dust..."
"Then they would be more willing to listen to you."
I nodded my head.
"It's a tool, a valuable one, but once a tool limits you then you must search for other tools. Only by showing that there are other alternatives will people open their mind to the possibilities."
"So you wanted to open their minds?"
"Telling people they're stupid for doing something never works. Giving them other options? It does."
"And you thanked the President of the Schnee dust company why?"
"Because he is my biggest obstacle, he has every reason in the world to crush a non dust reliant tech base and he has more than enough money and resources to crush me like a bug. But now he has a choice: either be a genius visionary who helped me accomplish the impossible or be a laughingstock who got tricked by a child. You and I both know what option he will pick."
Ozpin stared at me.
"And what about the government? I doubt they will be happy?"
"Smart move is for the prime minister to claim credit, blame the secrecy on his opposition and ride the accomplishment to electoral victory."
"And you would allow them to do that?"
"Old mando saying: 'Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat only one'."
Ozpin blinked.
"I will bring this up with the prime minister."
I shrugged.
"Can you get someone to get me a steak?"
Ozpin froze.
"What?"
"Well I'm the first person to go into space... I think that's worthy of a decent steak, right?"
Ozpin laughed, and shook his head.
"After we get you out."
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ChericoWell worn.
Utah
"So how long did it take for you to create this spaceship of yours."
The interrogation room is hot, too hot.
"Well once I had all of the supplies... putting it together took about 6 months."
"Six months of work for 12 hours in space, was it worth it?"
"Is my name going into the history books?"
The officer sighed.
"Yes."
"Am I going to be charged with a crime? Because I'm pretty sure buying a spaceship and going into outer space isn't a crime, either by national or international law."
The cop sat back.
"It isn't but you have created a giant migraine for us, I hope you understand that."
"Vale is first into space."
"Which will bring others into space."
"Which means humanity has a better chance of survival."
The cop blinked.
"Ok, I see your logic."
The man leaned back.
"You're going to have a photo op with the prime minister, the official story is that this was a secret operation. You're going to turn over your records to us."
"Am I going to be compensated for this?"
"Security detail, patents, and the fame and respect that goes with being considered to be a genius, and of course we will pay for the use of your satellites. Do they have the ability to see things from orbit?"
"Of course, do you have the security clearance to get the codes from me?"
The cop typed into his scroll.
"No, also from now on you will have a handler to make sure you're safe and to keep you from doing anything... well, crazy."
"You're going to spy on me."
"You put three spy satellites into orbit when we thought it was impossible, of course we are going to spy on you."
"I still wish to become a hunter."
The man stared at me.
"With all due respect, why? You're clearly a bright boy, you would make more money just doing what you're doing, you would get more respect that way too. Why risk everything to become a hunter?"
"I really, really, hate Grimm."
"I respect that, but In all likelyhood you're not going to go on the front lines."
"Grimm are evil."
"And we need your mind to help fight them. This is why we need decently funded orphanages, to prevent kids like you from falling through the cracks."
He got up.
"Look we are going to get you some nice clothing and-"
"If I am doing any photo ops then I prefer to do so in my clan's traditional armor."
"Great...."
The officer left the room and I had minds follow him, the door closed and I listened through my stand's ears.
"So what's the story?"
"Personally? I think the kid's off his fucking rock, I haven't heard jackshit about these mandolorians."
"Villages and clans vanish all the time."
"It sounds like bullshit to me."
"It's the kind of bullshit with a listed culinary style no one's seen before, I read the recipe list on his website and it all works out as legit."
"My gut says he's lying."
"And our superiors say to humor him, we're dealing with a national asset so play nice."
"When did the world lose its mind?"
"The world was always crazy, you just noticed it."
The door opened and the man smiled at me.
"We will get your armor soon."
"Thank you."
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ChericoWell worn.
Ozpin
The prime minister stared at us, a collection of hunters, scientists and military personal.
"Can someone please explain how an 11 year old showed up our best scientists and engineers, please?"
He turned to me.
"Mr. Urban's work isn't from scratch. He bought out a lot of the remnants of our former space program and repurposed them with slightly different technology."
The man took in a breath.
"And how did he get that access?"
"The old aerospace site has been abandoned for decades and treated more like an old shame than anything else. When he approached the government body that owned the site with an offer they pretty much sold him whatever he wanted at a fraction of its real price."
"And we allowed it?"
"Better to get something out of it than nothing."
The man leaned back.
"All right, I'm taking his offer which means this whole operation was a secret operation. The opposition shut down all of my efforts at a space program, so we had to work in secret. Everything that happened, happened because we made it happen."
"Really?"
"Ozpin, for the sake of national security it's better for Vale to look like sneaky masterminds than idiots who got conned by a child."
"Much better for your career too."
"That's also true."
He looked at the next man over.
"So how much more advanced was this kid's tech then ours?"
"Not by much, he simply used chemical rockets to take care of the last leg of the operation."
"And why didn't we do that?"
"Dust based fuels are so much more efficient and better that we never considered the option of more primitive and less efficient options."
The man took deep breaths.
"So, in other words, our dust obsession screwed us."
"Correct."
He looked at me.
"You said the boy did this just to prove that point, right? That we have been ignoring other options in favor of dust."
"Yes."
"Well the boy couldn't have given us a better argument, I'm going to press for money to be given to research non dust related technologies."
He leaned back.
"We will give him a parade, let him do a few interviews that we manage and make sure he's watched."
"He plans on joining Signal academy."
The prime minister rolled his eyes.
"Of course, can't have the engineering prodigy doing what he's good at."
He shook his head.
"We will have someone watch over him from now on, we can't afford to let ourselves be made to look like idiots. Oh and tell Patch that the aerospace industry will be headquartered on it."
I blinked.
"Not going to put it somewhere else?"
"Every one who was involved in the original space program is either dead or retired, the only place with a proven track record of success is Patch. Now that we know this is possible, I want more satellites. I don't just want communication satellites, I want things up there watching the weather, watching Grimm, looking for more dust deposits."
He smiled.
"Look I know this has everyone off kilter but as suprises go... this is a good one. Vale is the first country to go into space, no one can take that away from us."
The prime minister leaned back.
"Now we just have to stay there."
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ChericoWell worn.
Velvet Scarlatina
I woke up to the sound of metal being struck. I sighed, it was like that in the industrial section of Vale.
"Velvet? It's time to get up."
As faunus families go, we were doing all right. Father had a good factory job, his boss wasn't a bigot and if anyone said anything... well bad, he went in and cleaned things up. Father's company was a good one that didn't discriminate against their workers. Father had choice words about the bad companies and we tried to avoid buying stuff from them, I yawned and looked at Coco.
"Ok."
Her father worked for the government, doing engineering stuff. The job forced him to move around a lot so Coco spent a lot of time in our apartment, sleeping over. We got dressed and went to school. I shivered, it was getting colder.
"Dad's going to be returning home from Patch soon."
"Really?"
Coco nodded.
"Yes."
I grimaced as I saw people, I wasn't good with large crowds and people made fun of the way I talked and the way I looked and they made fun of my ears. But the actual classes were fun and we were going to be Huntresses some day which was a really important job.
I stayed close to Coco, as long as I was close to her people wouldn't bully me. I worked hard, studied and did really well on the test and we went home to my home. Coco smiled as she opened the door but my mom stopped us.
"Your fathers are talking about private stuff, go out and play."
We were shooed out and Coco looked at me.
"We're getting in."
I reluctantly helped her sneak in through the window and we knelt down to listen in.
"Buzz you're overreacting."
"I am not overreacting, I have every right to be livid."
It looked like my father was trying to calm coco's father down.
"I thought you would be happy, Buzz."
"Why would you think that? Some bureaucrat sold a fucking X-7 to a total nobody! It cost over 2 fucking billion lien to make just one of them and they sold it for less then two million!"
"Those things have been in storage for over 30 years, buzz. No one even lives in the cape since they shut it down."
"Yeah we all got kicked out when..."
"When the last launch exploded, I know. I lived next door to you, I was right next to you when it happened."
"We lost everything that day."
"My father was a janitor, yours drove a maintenance vehicle, the jobs our parents got after the move were decent enough. Speaking of which, how did he manage to get it to work?"
"Ugh... He changed the fuel."
"What?"
"Yeah me and the boys did a complete check of the stuff. All he did was upgrade some of the electronics with more modern stuff, and used a different form of fuel."
"How would that even work?"
"The X-7 was meant to work off of high pressurized liquid fire dust, this rocket fuel he used was well within the tolerances. Essentally he just did a few minor tweeks and boom, it works."
"Shouldn't we be happy about that?"
"We watched a man die that day, we watched space travel die that day, we watched our dreams die that day because we used the wrong fucking fuel."
"The kid's supposed to be really smart."
"We had the best minds in the fucking world working on the X-7 project, and they couldn't figure out to use something else?"
"This might be something that's only obvious in hindsight? We used the best fuel we had."
"And it got showed up by some high powered gasoline! The boy used a more primitive kind of fuel and it somehow showed up the entire fucking planet."
"Then that's it, we went with our best stuff. No one thought to go with something more primitive."
"I need another beer."
"Two is your limit Buzz, we agreed on that. So what are they going to do with him?"
"Probably steal his ideas and make him some kind of mascot? Seriously I'm furious, this whole thing means we were on the edge of pulling it off the entire time and just gave up too soon."
"At least it happened, Vale first in space."
"Hell yeah! Another beer?"
"Limit's two, buzz."
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ChericoWell worn.
Ghira Belladonna
"Oh no no, I'm a rocket man."
I watched the boy in the helmet sing as he floated in space, music played along with him as Kali and I watched the tapes. When the interview ended, the tape went blank and Kali looked at me with concern.
"Can I watch it again?"
"Go ahead, Blake."
I got up and walked with Kali to the package that had been sent to me, I looked at my engineers.
"You sure it isn't a bomb?"
"Yes."
"You're sure it's from Patch?"
"Yes, apparently the courier was paid top dollar to smuggle this to us."
It had arrived a while ago, addressed to me. The strange device inside the box had a screen and had remained dormant up to now. The screen turned on, a helmet was on it.
"Testing, one, two, three. Anyone here?"
I knew that voice, my voice was cold.
"Utah Urban, I presume?"
"You presume correctly Ghira. It is good to finally speak to you."
"And why would you be happy to speak to me when you're clearly aligned with the Schnees?"
A little bit of anger leeched out of my voice.
"While I do like their technology... I actually don't really care for some of Mr. Schnee's views, especially the ones on Faunus and their rights."
"So an alliance of convenience then?"
"My people have a saying 'the strong do as they will, the weak do as they must' and I am currently very weak."
I blinked at the statement and admission before nodding.
"So what is this about?"
"Menagerie is currently cut off from international communication."
"Because we lack the ability to create a tower of our own."
"But we are currently communicating with my satellites."
I heard the sound of something unlocking and the box opened, a data stick came out.
"This is all the information you need to build the technology to use my satellites for communication and hook into the greater grid. Vale also has this information and soon other nations will possess it, with this Menagerie is connected to the outside world."
I stared at the stick.
"I assume this isn't free?"
"Correct, you see I am not from Vale. My clan, like many others, was destroyed by Grimm but I was able to find a descendent of my clan's founder."
I nodded my head.
"Go on?"
"She plans on going to Beacon a year early, I do not want her to be corrupted by any anti-faunus propaganda while she's there. If your daughter was there that year as a team mate I could hopefully try to prevent that from happening."
I blinked.
"I thought you were all about uplifting humanity."
"In Mando culture there is no distinction between the two peoples, Faunus are human in my people's eyes."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Quite a few mandalores, our leaders, have been Faunus in the past. I would deeply appreciate it if your daughter was around to keep Emerald on the straight and narrow as it were."
"You want my daughter to babysit your girl?"
"Keeping her away from unsavory people would be ideal yes."
I thought about it and looked at my wife.
"We're in."
"Kali, a huntress's life is dangerous."
"Ghira, it's a fair deal. International communication would improve all of our lives and Blake could make useful connections in Beacon."
I looked at him.
"I take it our alliance would be secret?"
"For now, at least. When I am in a stronger position I will be able to act more openly."
"Understood, we accept the deal."
In the weeks to follow I would find out that there was limitations to our new technology, but instant communication was still a useful tool and I could already see how it could be used to further our cause.
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ChericoWell worn.
Utah
"Got to say you guys have really outdone yourselves, I mean compliments to the cook this steak is delicious."
It's pretty easy to pick out who's in the know or not.
The ones who are have a kind of restrained hostility to me, the ones who are not in the know are full of praise. The older man at my table sighs.
"So we were actually that close to space travel?"
I nod at him, the man had been one of the operators in the space project.
"Yep, you just needed a different form of fuel in the booster rockets."
"The idea behind using the liquid fire dust was that it would give enough power to burn through the atmosphere. Instead it... well, went boom."
I shrugged.
"I saw that, the X-7 was a fantastic piece of engineering but burning two booster rockets worth of fuel all at once was always going to end in tears, I had to do some light modifications and go with a slower burn of what I had."
"Interesting. I would like to thank you, the X-7 was important to all of us so finding out our life's work wasn't in vain... it means the world to us."
"If it helps you were really close."
"Well there is something to be said for perserverance. I am told that operations will be moved to Patch?"
"Yes, unfortunately I'm told that the facilities in the cape have degraded over the years and since Patch has the only source of rocket fuel, well..."
The man shrugged.
"The cape was never the most hospitable place to be, while I have fond memories of the place I understand why people would want to avoid associating with our failures."
"Failure is the father of success, I couldn't have done what I did without standing on your shoulders."
The man smiled and as I finished my steak I saw the girls walk in. I got out of my seat and waved to them and they rushed over and hugged me.
"We missed you!"
Ruby nuzzled into me and I hugged her back.
"I missed you too Ruby, and I missed Yang and Emerald as well."
The collective hug ended, and Yang smiled.
"So you really decided to name the satellites after us?"
"Well something that good has to be named after something awesome, right? Didn't see how I could top the three of you."
Yang blushed.
"I um...yeah, I am pretty awesome."
I smiled at her as she got redder.
"Well um yeah your pretty cool rocket man."
"Stuck with that name for life, Yang ?"
Yang waggled her eyebrows.
"Yeah it blew up hard."
"Got it."
"Yep."
Emerald looked at me.
"I really wish you could have told me what the business trip was."
"Wanted it to be a surprise."
Emerald frowned.
"Don't risk your life like that, people would miss you."
Emerald blushed.
"I missed you too, Emerald."
With that done we took our seats at the table, I let the girls handle most of the conversation while I scanned the room for the person I was looking for. And there she was.
Getting ahold of Velvet was actually very difficult, especially in a way that looked natural. It took a very big background check to find an excuse... no, I didn't go into space just to get a bunny girl but it was one of the reasons to go there. Great thing about being the center of this party was getting to choose the venue. Which meant I got to pick one where the restrooms were a floor above, with several stairways. A 50 lien note and the little bunny girl was set up with all the drinks she could want.
I nodded as she started squirming in her seat. My table was close to the doorway, she got out and headed out the door while Minds followed her. I smiled as I watched through its eyes as the girls talked.
"I need to go to the restroom."
I nodded my head at my girls and got up, I smiled as I walked to the stairway. Velvet was on the top I was on the bottom walking up and Minds grabbed her ankle and then pushed.
"Eep!"
Velvet tripped and fell down on top off me, I used that moment to press a knight into her skin and took the damage from the stairs. Velvet teared up and then noticed she was on top of me.
"Are you ok?"
"Rocket man?"
I helped her up as she winced.
"I... oh no, no, no, I am so sorry. I."
"You tripped, it happens."
"I am so sorry."
"It's ok."
She winced.
"Are you all right?"
"Um yeah, but."
"You had an accident it happens."
"I'm sorry."
Her ears lowered and I smiled.
"You're cute."
The girl blushed.
"What?"
"Especially your ears, you're adorable."
Velvet shrunk into herself.
"Everyone says my ears are stupid."
"Well, I disagree. I think they're cute and since I got into space and they didn't I think my words have more weight, don't you?"
"I um guess."
I smiled warmly at her as she wriggled around.
"Can I please have your name?"
"Velvet. um why would you want to know my name I'm a um."
"Cute girl."
Velvet coughed and looked away adorably.
"Faunus."
"Why do you think I would have a problem with that?"
"Well you said you want to uplift humanity?"
"What makes you think I dont consider Faunus to be human?"
Velvet blinked.
"I'm sorry it's just normally when people say human they dont mean um us."
"Well, I think that stupid."
Velvet smiled.
"Yeah it is."
"Can I have your phone number?"
"Um sure."
She wrote it down and I smiled, bunny waifu get.
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"And you're sure that this is true?"
"Yes."
I took a deep breath.
"This is bad."
"Not necessarily, the Schnee corporation was given some of the credit for the victory."
"And?"
"And the man is a divisive figure who brings division and trouble wherever he goes, also this event upsets the balance of power. I think we can use this event to further our goals."
"They have the ultimate highground now."
I shrugged.
"And that doesn't necessarily mean that it hurts my goals. It might just be the case that space travel will in fact further them."
Cinder blinked at my statement.
"Can you explain how?"
"I wish to control and dominate Remnant, to remove those who oppose me from the board. The problem with my enemies is that every time I push them to the limit, to the brink, they find some way to thwart me. Humanity is at its most dangerous when it has its back to the wall. Something I have discovered the hard way too many times."
"So what's the plan?"
"Cinder, If Ozpin and his allies flee Remnant for some place else, then that is victory enough."
I suddenly felt my age again.
"A part of me tires of this endless war, of this endless game, and just wants to be rid of the man and his cronies. If our enemies move somewhere else then we have won. Let them flee like the cowards they are, we will rule over our rightful domain."
Cinder nodded.
"So?"
"Patch is off limits, this boy is off limits as well. If he is killed by Grimm so be it but he currently serves our cause even if he doesn't know it. The sooner the rats flee the ship the better."
With that done Cinder left, and I felt tired.
People worshipped gods but, speaking as some one who actually met them, I personally found them wanting. Ozpin was willing to play their game but as for me I was tired of that nonsense and had no desire to play along. The gods were quite simply put assholes and I was sick of being their plaything.
And I had no problem telling them in person exactly what I felt about them, their games and their bullshit. They had toyed with this world long enough, toyed with me long enough, and I just wanted to give them one last middle finger of defiance.
Strange... Despite all of my centuries, I still contained that bit of my humanity.
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Cherico, Dec 24, 2019Report
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Threadmarks: Utah
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ChericoWell worn.
Joined:May 12, 2017Messages:7,747Likes Received:561,644
Utah
To say that I have Zero privacy is a bit of an understatement.
That doesn't mean I don't have options though, I purposely put in all sorts of backdoors in my satellites, in my armor's com systems, in my personal computer systems. I can still move pieces on the board, I just have to be a hell of a lot more subtle and I have to do it rarely.
Menagery was, for example, a risk but one I was able to take while officially nodding off on the car ride over to the docks.
Once I got to Patch government agents were there waiting for me and watching me, they had questions and I had to watch myself very carefully. It wasn't all bad however, I was given more robots to play with and was put to the task of helping build the new rocket site for the government of Vale. I was also still allowed chances to hunt if chaperoned which meant I was still getting that trickle of experience and power.
The other thing that surprised me, but really shouldn't have, was that Yang and Ruby visited a lot.
Honey pots were a thing, and thus I was allowed to talk to Ruby, Yang, Emerald, and even call Velvet up to listen to her talk about her day. The idea was that when I would eventally get older the hormones would kick in and If I got attached to a childhood friend romantically... well that would make it much less likely for me to leave.
Still this situation was stifling and I needed some way to get these people off of my ass.
"Want to play a game or something?"
My current handler was known as being well kind of a schlub, not exactly bright but diligent... annoyingly diligent.
"Sure, poker I guess."
I had cards after all, and with Minds I could cheat pretty easily.
"Alright."
Guy had a lousy poker face and we were just playing for chits that didn't mean anything.
"Not playing for money."
"Yeah I know, kid."
The game started, I knew his hand was crap and he wasn't good at the game anyway. I played ruthlessly, punishing his every mistake until I smiled.
"Whole pot."
"Remind me not to play for money with you."
I shrugged and collected my chips and something broke, in my eyes the chips broke and glowed. I studied them and blinked.
"You ok?"
I picked one up and then looked at my handler. Favor's influence... I felt like a raging moron, I had misused and misunderstood Minds this entire time. I had so much potential and power and I used only a bare fraction of it.
"Yeah... Better than ok."
I was trapped, I was under their eye but now I saw a way out. I would have to be sneaky, have to think things through but I had options now and that suited me just fine.
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Cherico, Dec 26, 2019Report
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Threadmarks: Utah
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ChericoWell worn.
Joined:May 12, 2017Messages:7,747Likes Received:561,644
Utah
All right I figured out what Minds does, besides the obvious.
Influence. It's not the level of control that I have with my pieces, which I exercised carefully even before the launch. It's a limited resource that can be used up.
"So you want to create a casino?"
"I think, with all of the people coming to Patch, that it would be a good way to make sure that jobs and money flow into the economy."
The thing about this influence is that they have to lose a game for me to get it. Lien is the best wager for it. If they lose I get a certain amount of influence. Using said influence to get someone to not do some thing is cheaper than getting them to do something. With things getting more expensive the bigger the request is.
Great thing for me? Most of what I want people to do is nothing or less.
So I can push someone into overlooking something, or being somewhere else, for not very much.
"And you think this would be good for Patch's economy?"
I leaned back.
"Of course. That said I would prefer it if there was someone in the government watching payroll and income, so that a manager doesn't try to pull a fast one and not pay their taxes."
The man blinked.
"Utah you have always been scrupulously honest about your taxes, we've gone through it and you have actually voluntarily opted out of tax loopholes you actually could have used because you said it felt shady."
"Yes but keeping an honest man honest is always good and I can't watch this casino at all times."
The man nodded and I got the land license and everything else pretty cheaply.
Why?
Because Patch needs jobs, the school never did make up the difference for the loss of the cannery. So the government here had incentives to get people to open up places of business, which of course couldn't compete with the capital but then again I didn't want to use this to make money.
The casino was a way to get leverage over my watchers, everyone on base would receive 200 lien of chips a week. These chips couldn't be exchanged for money directly, you had to gamble at my casino and win chips there that you could exchange for money. Any of these free chips that were lost extended my influence, and if they won then that would encourage them to gamble again.
The first step was done and as I walked out of the government section I saw Signal in the distance.
Taiyang and Qrow didn't like me, for legitimate reasons. I was the boy who visited the girls, the boy they had a crush on, and my intentions were far from pure. The men were another obstacle to my goals. I smiled, they were teachers at signal... and if the teachers also got free chips?
Well it would take a while but if I could get enough influence then that was one less problem for me to deal with, I smiled at Minds as the wheels of my plans went in motion.
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Cherico, Dec 27, 2019Report
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Threadmarks: Utah
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ChericoWell worn.
Joined:May 12, 2017Messages:7,747Likes Received:561,644
Utah
I can't steal people's souls, I can't harm them by winning games of chance against them, I can't steal their strengths, their aura, their powers, or change their bodies. What Minds does is simple, I can control my pieces and influence others.
"Look, Um... Sir, I need this job."
I looked over the man's career.
"I see your son has Leukimia."
The man blinked as if struck.
"I um."
"You have... wow, 300 thousand lien in debt? Medical bills, mostly."
The man looked at me with trepidation.
"Look, I'm a hard worker and an honest man."
"I looked through your files. As a sailor you make 20 thousand lien a year, this job pay 30 thousand. Your son's leukemia... At this stage there is only one cure for it and that cure costs 500,000 lien but to get him to the best doctor's locations? That's another 200 thousand lien. You can't possibly pay your medical debt, you can't possibly afford to help your son. Your son is going to die, and after that you're going to go into a debtor's prison."
The man looked away.
"I want 5 years of your life."
He blinked.
"What?"
"I am willing to pay off your medical bills, I'm willing to pay for your son's operation and I'm willing to pay the extra 200 thousand lien to get him transportation to the best hospital in Atlas to get all of that done. That's your sign up bonus but in exchange I want 5 years of your life."
His eyes were open.
"So um."
"You still get your 30 thousand a year, insurance, and all that but like I said this isn't free. I need someone who will run an honest game, I need someone who will work nights. For the next 5 years of your life you work that night shift, for the next 5 years of your life your days off are Monday and Tuesday. For the next 5 years of your life you only get one week of vacation a year."
I paused.
"If you get sick, you power through. If you get injured, you power through. If you have a problem with Faunus, I want you to get over it now because I do not tolerate that shit in my facilities. You run an honest game for me, you work the night shift and in 5 years you get to walk out of here."
He took a deep breath.
"Your boy's 7 years old, the only way he gets to 12 is if you take my deal."
I looked him in the eye, the man let out a breath of relief.
"Thank you for your kindness, sir! I will make sure to run a clean game for you."
With that contracts were signed, you might be surprised to find out that I didn't want to cheat. The reason was simple: I didn't need to. The odds of casino games are inherently against the player. Math is on my side and I wasn't running this place for the money, that was just a side benefit.
The goal was influence, the goal was to get my privacy back. Even now I had some prick with glasses watching me. If I wanted to get my freedom I needed to corrupt all of them. I looked at my docket. I had enough employees now, and thanks to paying quite a bit of money my casino would be open in a couple weeks.
The man in glasses looked at me.
"You sure it's a good idea to be that softhearted?"
"I need people who will run a clean game and show up to work, I'm willing to bend a little to make that happen."
"Don't see the need, for a casino."
"This is hard work, people need to blow off steam."
And If I ever want to have a wank without you watching me, I need to do this.
"I guess that's understandable."
This shit was getting real old real fast.
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Cherico, Dec 28, 2019Report
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Threadmarks: Yang
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ChericoWell worn.
Joined:May 12, 2017Messages:7,747Likes Received:561,644
Yang
First day of school, of Signal. I walked with Utah through the classes, looking for mine.
"Nervous?"
He sighed.
"A little."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"Really? Rocket Man's worried?"
He shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
I took off his helmet and his eyes darted around.
"It's just school, Utah."
"I know."
"You will be fine."
He took a deep breath.
"I know."
"What has you so worried?"
He froze and took more deep breaths and closed his eyes.
"I don't do human very well when I can't work off a script, or I'm not working on a project or a plot."
He opened his eyes.
"I don't know what to do, I don't do human all that well I guess."
I punched him in the arm.
"Stop that, you do human ok."
He smiled and I felt my heart flutter just a little bit.
"You should smile more, Utah."
"I should spend more time around people who make me feel like smiling I guess."
I couldn't help but blush.
"Yeah, I guess you should. How's work going?"
"Getting to the point where they won't need me any more."
I gave him a hug.
"So the space program doesn't need Rocket Man?"
"The space program just needed a few tweaks to get off the ground, Vale was close to pulling it off. Everyone was, you just needed that last push."
He looked up in the air, his eyes had that faraway look again.
"Was it worth it?"
He froze.
"I don't know. I spent so much time and effort chasing something, something I think will make me happy but if I get it there are all of these things that will try to take that happiness away so I can't focus on the very thing I wanted in the first place. I guess in a way I'm jealous of you, Yang."
I smiled.
"Well of course you are, I'm awesome. But... um for future reference what are you jealous of in particular?"
"Your ability to live in the moment, to just be, to exist, to enjoy life."
I nodded my head.
"Yeah, I am pretty cool."
I kissed my bicepts and Utah laughed.
"I really am glad you're a part of my life."
"So am I, Rocket Man."
We walked to our classes and I sat next to him. People tend to assume I'm dumb you know, the blond thing, but as school started I found out that I already knew a lot of this stuff. Dad had been training me and teaching me whenever he could after all and I grew up around hunters. Utah did great too, because he's smart.
I was at the top and I liked it because that's where I'm supposed to be but it was nice to have Utah around, wouldn't want the top to get lonely I guess.
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Cherico, Dec 28, 2019Report
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ChericoWell worn.
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Qrow
"This whole thing seems fishy, Taiyang, like I have a bad feeling about it fishy."
Taiyang sighed.
"Qrow, are you going to do this every time we hit the casino?"
"Yes."
We showed our Id's and picked up our weekly chits.
"Look... it's essentially free money."
"And that's why I don't trust it, what's his motivation?"
"To suck up to his teachers and the school administration? And it's working."
I frowned.
"There has to be more than that."
"Look it's 200 free chips a week, I turn those into 20 bets on roulette, I bet on black, at least 50% of the time I normally lose. The other half I win. That means I normally walk out with an extra 150 lien a week, that's another 7,800 lien a year."
He shrugged.
"It's not a lot of money but it helps cover dust bills."
We froze in front of a giant wheel.
"15 million lien..."
I read the fine print.
"In play chips. You and I both know it won't actually be that much money."
There was only one white section, everything else said 'lose'.
"It's five chits to play."
"I don't think it's a good idea, Tai."
He payed the man.
"I know, especially if you're next to me, but then again maybe you're bad luck for the casino."
Taiyang spun the wheel and my stomach sank as it fell on the white mark.
"WE HAVE A WINNER!"
There were cheers as the chits were brought forth, Taiyang smiled at me.
"Told you so."
I smiled weakly.
"I don't trust this, Tai."
"Look, I'm going to hit the roulette tables, I'm probably going to lose a good chunk of this but..."
I waved him off.
"I know."
I went off, played a few games and lost most of them but got enough legit chips to buy a drink... then I bought another and another and I passed out. when I woke up I was on the couch again. Taiyang sighed.
"What happened?"
"You passed out on the floor, I had to keep you with me for the rest of the night."
I grimaced.
"How bad?"
"I only won 300 thousand, lost everything else."
I frowned.
"I'm sorry."
Tai shrugged.
"Easy come, easy go. It's enough to pay off some bills, and do a bunch of other stuff."
I shrank into myself.
"This is my fault."
"Don't be like that, Qrow! You can't help your condition."
I had a sinking feeling that I had screwed up bad, beyond just money.
"I think we screwed up, Tai."
"Stop that, its just money. Even if it's a lot of money, it's just money. We're better off than we were before, that's what matters."
I stared off blankly into the distance.
"Sure."
I couldn't help but feel like we had been set up, somehow.
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Cherico, Dec 28, 2019Report
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Threadmarks: Ghira Belladonna
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ChericoWell worn.
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Ghira Belladonna
The screen turned on and I sat at my chair and table, my wife stood next to me.
"Utah, it's been awhile."
The boy stood there in his mask.
"About a year. It takes a while to figure out the security, human and mechanical, and ways around it."
I nodded my head.
"I understand."
"How are things going on your end?"
I shrugged.
"Our access to your satellites have helped a lot, global communications is a game changer. We have had some of our people in libraries copying useful technology and sending it here."
"Milatary?"
I shook my head.
"No, Farming, engineering, things that will make our lives here materially better. Military secrets get attention I do not want and won't improve our worse problems."
I paused.
"Heard you opened a casino, can you explain why?"
"Casino's are a good way to sneak things like lien into the hands of one's allies, people don't question someone having a hot streak."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting. Am I considered an ally?"
"I consider anti-Faunus bigotry to be an affront to my culture and ancestors. I am currently being forced to hold my tongue on that matter for now."
I could hear honest frustration in his voice, good.
"How goes the space program?"
"I've been turned into a glorified IT expert and mascot but it's going well. The new sats will be finished soon and my current ones have finally finished their geological survey."
I blinked.
"They can do that?"
"They can do a lot of things, I did a whole lot of upgrades to the original design. I'm going to have to share the results with the government of Vale."
I nodded my head.
"That's expected."
"The Schnee corporation has asked for a complete list of potential dust reserves."
I sighed.
"You're going to give it to them aren't you?"
"They're holding back a lot of used robots that I need and I am getting a very good discount, that said I'm going to withhold the results from them another six months."
I heard a dinging sound.
"What's that?"
"Every thing I know about your country's dust, mineral, oil, and other resources, its as complete a topographical map as I can get. Your country by the way is rich in oil and rare earth metals."
I stared at him.
"Please explain?"
"Rare earths are used in high end electronics, such as solar and other important things, while oil can be used as a power source and to create plastics. Good news for you is that besides fire dust you have large Ice and water dust in the north, and plant dust in the south. The spot in the middle, here? It has a huge gravity dust deposit. The Schnee dust company is going to use this information to pull a fast one on you and might try to buy 'worthless land' from you."
"Asshole."
I stared at my wife, who shrugged.
"I can't hold him off forever, I need the robots and he's getting more and more pushy, but I can give you the information first and stall for time so you can secure your country's national resources."
I pressed my hands together.
"Thank you, Utah. Despite your circumstances you have been a good ally."
"I will try to help you as much as I can, I trust you have agents you can trust?"
"Yes."
"Good, I will give you a disposable scroll ID, I will try to arrange drop offs of cash and resources when I can. Utah, out."
The screen turned off and Kali looked at me.
"You think we can trust this?"
"Trust but verify, we will print out maps and send out mixed hunter survey teams. Utah has been a useful ally to us in the past, if this is true then he's done us a major favor."
"The Schnee will have the same information."
I sighed in resignation.
"I know but he's given us time when he didn't have to, that matters to me. It's better to have allies who are constrained than no allies at all."
My wife hugged me and, as we stared at the multitude of maps, I felt a sense of hope. This land of ours might be horrible but we could make the best of things.
I blinked.
"Ghira?"
And then I laughed.
"Ghira?"
I smiled at my wife.
"We found gold."
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